Nurses continue to work in Peterborough despite pressure from growing number of staff vacancies

The extent of the struggle for health staff in Peterborough to provide vital services despite a high level of vacancies has been revealed with the release of new figures.

The data shows the sheer number of nursing and other medical vacancies that currently exist in hospitals and other health care providers.

Nurses leaders say staff are being put under "intolerable pressure" as there "aren't enough of them".

Currently, more than one in 20 positions in hospitals across Peterborough and Cambridgeshire are vacant.

NHS England data shows that 7.2 per cent of full-time equivalent positions at North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Peterborough City Hospital, Stamford and Rutland Hospital and Hinchingbrooke Hospital, were vacant at the end of December last year.

At the end of March 2022, this figure had been 7.4 per cent.

Figures also show that 7.7 per cent of full-time equivalent positions at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, which provides community, mental health and learning disability services, were unfilled at the end of December last year. At the end of March 2022, this figure was six per cent.

Vacancies do not mean these jobs are not being carried out, as a shortfall in permanent employees may be covered by temporary or agency staff.

General secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, Pat Cullen, said: "Recruiting and retaining nursing staff in the NHS has become a serious challenge on the back of over a decade of pay cuts."

"Until we begin to turn the tide and fill these vacant posts, the NHS will not be able to tackle the backlog in care.”

NHS England figures also show there were no absences from work at North West Anglia during the nurses’ strike early this month and that no elective procedures, outpatient appointments or community appointments were rescheduled during the strike days from April 30 to May 3.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: "There are record numbers of staff working in the NHS.

"We will publish a workforce plan shortly to ensure that we have the right numbers of staff."